Gessart turned to Lehenhart, knowing the veteran would have his own thoughts on the matter.
“It won’t take them long to get here,” said Lehenhart. “Whatever we’re going to do, we have to decide quickly. If we leave it too late to run, their ships can easily overhaul a strike cruiser. If we’re going to fight, we had best start preparing our defences.”
Gessart sighed. That observation didn’t make the choice any easier. The comm chimed in his ear before he could say anything else.
“This is Vengeful,” came Kholich’s tinny voice. “Confirm three vessels on a closing course. Warships, cruiser-class. We’re beating to orders, arming weapon batteries and setting plasma reactors to battle readiness. Do you wish us to break from docking?”
Gessart glared at the main screen, searching for a sign of the attackers but they were still too far away to be seen against the darkness of space. On the scanner, he could see the merchant ships closest to the eldar turning away, scattering in all directions like sheep before wolves.
“Remain docked,” said Gessart.
“Captain, we will not have battle manoeuvrability whilst attached to the Lady Bountiful.”
“Do not question my orders! Continue loading until the enemy are ten thousand kilometres away and then break docking. Take up escort position on the Lady Bountiful. We will remain aboard the trader. Signal the civilian fleet to maintain formation and make best speed to our location.”
“Understood, captain.”
The link crackled and fell silent. With a sub-vocal order, he switched the comm to his command channel, addressing the Space Marines of his force.
“Arm the crew,” he said. “Let them fight for their vessel alongside us. If nothing else, they will be a distraction to the enemy. Remember that we do not fight for the Emperor, nor to protect these people and their ships. This is a battle we must win because our survival depends upon it. Fail here and we are doomed. Better to die in battle now than to eke out a worthless existence drifting the stars. Our destiny is in our hands and though we are no longer slaves to the Imperium, we are still Space Marines!”
The eldar were not dissuaded from their attack by the presence of the Vengeful. The three warships swooped in for the kill, sleek, fast and deadly. On the Lady Bountiful’s flickering scanner, Gessart watched the pirates circling around one of the other merchantmen.
“Detect laser weaponry fire,” Kholich reported from the strike cruiser. “They are targeting the engines of the Valdiatius Five. Shall we move to intercept, captain?”
Gessart quickly assessed the situation on the scanner. As well as the Lady Bountiful, three other ships were already within range of the Vengeful’s batteries. The rest of the convoy were making slow progress and the eldar would fall upon each in turn without having to risk a confrontation with the strike cruiser if it maintained its current position.
“Put yourself between the raiders and the rest of the convoy,” he told Kholich. “Force them towards our position.”
“Affirmative, captain, moving to intercept,” replied Kholich.
“Engage at long range only,” Gessart added. It was unlikely the eldar would risk boarding a Space Marine vessel, but he didn’t want to risk losing the strike cruiser. He turned to Nicz, who was at the helm and engine controls. “Can you manoeuvre this piece of scrap?”
“Engines and control systems responding well,” replied Nicz without looking up. “The ship’s a mess on the outside, but Loil kept the important functions well maintained.”
“Can you simulate thruster difficulties?”
Nicz glanced at Gessart, guessing his intent.
“I can set them up with intermittent firing,” he said. “We’ll fall behind the rest of the ships and make ourselves an easy target.”
“Do it,” said Gessart, returning his attention to the scanner screen.
As he had hoped, the eldar were unwilling to tackle the strike cruiser directly, despite having more ships. As the Vengeful cut through the scattered ships of the convoy, the pirates broke away from their attack and retreated, putting several thousand kilometres between themselves and the escort.
The Lady Bountiful trembled violently as Nicz misfired the engines. His armour was bathed with an orange glow as warning lights flickered across the panel in front of him.
“Venting plasma,” he announced.
The ship shook again and rocked to starboard as a plume of superheated gas exploded from emergency exhausts along the portside stern. Nicz was deliberately clumsy in his attempts to correct their course, causing the ship to list sideways for several minutes while the main engines stuttered with flaring blasts of fire. Another glance at the scanner confirmed to Gessart that the three other merchant ships close to the Lady Bountiful were pulling away, heading directly from the eldar attack.
“Come on, take the bait,” Gessart muttered. “Look at us, we’re crippled. Come and get us!”
His attention was fixed on the scanner display, but the vague blobs of green that represented the eldar ships were too inaccurate to track any heading changes. He growled with frustration and fought the urge to slam his fist through the useless piece of equipment.
“Kholich, report!” he snapped. “What are the enemy doing?”
“They’ve altered course towards you, captain,” Kholich reported. “Not at full speed. They seem cautious.”
“They’re waiting to see what you are going to do,” Nicz cut in across the comm. “Move further away from our position.”
“Captain?” Kholich was uncertain, surprised by the break in protocol.
“Move out of weapons range of the Lady Bountiful,” Gessart said. “But stand ready to come about and make full speed to our position if needed. Keep me informed of the eldar’s movement, these scanners are worthless.”
“Affirmative, captain.”
Gessart broke the link and rounded on Nicz, stalking across the bridge to slam an open hand into the Space Marine’s armoured chest.
“Stay off the command channel!” Gessart growled. “I am still in charge.”
Nicz knocked away his leader’s hand and stepped forwards, the grille of his helm a few centimetres from Gessart’s.
“You’re just guessing,” Nicz replied calmly. “You haven’t any more idea what to do than the rest of us. We should be aboard the Vengeful, chasing down these scum.”
“They would run rings around us, and you know it,” snapped Gessart. “If they split up, we’ll have no chance of catching any of them. We need to draw them in, convince them to board. That’s when we’ll have the advantage.”
Nicz stepped back and his shock was clear in his voice.
“You intend to counter-board one of their ships?”
“If possible. We will have to see how badly they want to fight.”
Nicz said nothing but a shake of the head made it clear what he thought of Gessart’s plan. Gessart turned away and returned to his place at the command controls. His fingers drummed the side of the scanner display as he waited to find out what the eldar would do next.
“They’re using cutters on the starboard bow!” Lehenhart reported. “Decks six and seven.”
“Meet me at Lehenhart’s position,” Gessart told his warriors. One of the eldar warships had snared the Lady Bountiful in a gravity net and had pulled her alongside to board. The other two raiders had taken up a position a few thousand kilometres away to block the path of the Vengeful if it tried to intervene.
Gessart swung around to face Nicz. “Can I trust you to keep an eye on the other two ships?”
“I’ll tell you if either of them tries to board,” the Space Marine replied.
Gessart nodded and ran out of the bridge. He pounded along the uppermost deck until he came to a stairwell. Ducking sideways to fit his bulk through the low door, he hurled himself down the metal steps three at a time, the mesh buckling slightly under the impact of his boots. Three decks down, he squeezed into a narrow passageway flanked by rows of small cabins. Turning to
his left he headed towards the bow of the ship. After a few hundred metres the corridor split to the left and right. Bolter fire ran along the bare metal walls from starboard.
Unslinging his storm bolter, Gessart slowed to a jog, eyes scanning the open doorways ahead. He saw nothing until Lehenhart advanced into view along the gallery at the end of the passage, his bionic right hand holding his bolter in a firing position, serrated combat knife in the left. Bright blue lances of laser light erupted from ahead of the Space Marine, zipping past him as he shifted to his left and returned fire, his bolter blazing three times, the roar of each round echoing along the corridor around Gessart.
Glancing over his shoulder at the thump of booted feet, Gessart saw Willusch, Gerhart and Johun a few dozen strides behind him. Over the comm, he heard the reports of others closing in from aft.
Lehenhart had moved out of sight; as Gessart turned into the starboard gallery he saw the Space Marine holding a landing ahead, firing down the stairwell. Five eldar bodies lay sprawled on the decking. Gessart paused for a moment to examine the dead aliens.
Each was as tall as a Space Marine, though far slighter of build. They had thin, angular faces, their almond-shaped eyes wide with the gaze of the dead, ears slightly pointed, brows high and arched. They appeared to have no uniform, though all five wore close-fitting tunics of iridescent scales. One was swathed in the ragged remains of a long red cloak, half his chest missing from a bolt detonation; another was sprawled across the corridor face-down, two holes in the back of his high-collared, dark blue coat. Two of the others were female, their hair wound in elaborate blonde braids spattered with bright red blood, skin-tight suits of black and white beneath their mesh armour; the last half-sat against the wall, narrow chin on chest, head shaven but for a blue scalplock, wearing a broad-shouldered black jacket studded with glistening gems, his legs naked but for knee-high boots.
Long-barrelled lasrifles lay on the floor next to each body, of similar design but each decorated with different coloured gemstones and swirling golden filigrees. Gessart picked up one of the weapons and examined it. It was elegant, powered by some form of crystal cell in the thin stock of the weapon. It crumpled easily as he tightened his grip, no sturdier than the creature that had wielded it.
Reaching Lehenhart, Gessart leaned over the balustrade and saw lithe figures darting from cover to cover on the landing below. He snatched two fragmentation grenades from his belt, thumbed the activation studs and dropped them over the edge. The stairwell rang with twin detonations; shrapnel and smoke filled the enclosed space, a lingering scream signalling that he had found at least one target.
“Do we wait, or go to them?” asked Lehenhart.
Gessart dragged up his memory of the ship’s layout; he had to assume the eldar had scanned the vessel and knew something of its configuration as well. The upper four decks only extended for a third of the ship and did not connect to the hold directly. If the eldar were after the cargo—which was no longer aboard—they would have to go down to the lower six decks. With only twenty-five Space Marines to cover the hold, loading bays, docking areas and crew quarters, it would be hard to concentrate any resistance.
“Counter-attack!” Gessart told his warriors. “Make them pay in blood for ever setting foot on this ship!”
A fusillade of bright blasts and blurring discs filled the stairwell. Gessart recognised shuriken catapult fire amongst the laser shots. He leaned over the railing and unleashed a hail of fire from his storm bolter, the explosive ammunition ripping a trail of splintering metal across the landing below. Slender shapes darted from the shadows and he was engulfed by a hail of razor-sharp projectiles. Pushing himself back, he glanced down at his armour and saw a row of barbed discs embedded across his chest plastron.
“With me,” he growled, pounding down the steps. He heard Lehenhart and the others close behind.
The railing buckled as Gessart grabbed a hold to swing around a turn in the steps. Enemy fire stormed up to meet him; las-bolts seared the paint from his armour while more shurikens sliced through his left arm and leg.
With a leap, he crashed to the landing. There were more than a dozen eldar taking cover in the two doorways; they were dressed in the same strange mix of coats, cloaks and armour he had seen on the bodies above. Quicker than a heartbeat, some of the alien warriors leapt to attack, wielding chainswords with glittering teeth and long blades that gleamed with energy.
Gessart let loose with another burst of fire, shredding an eldar directly in front of him. Before he could adjust his aim, two more were upon him, the teeth of their chainswords shrieking as they skittered across his right shoulder pad and backpack. He swung the storm bolter like a club, aiming for the head of one of his attackers. The eldar dropped catlike to all fours and then leapt past, dragging her chainsword across the side of Gessart’s helm. He took a step back, trying to keep both assailants in view.
Lehenhart arrived at a run, smashing his fist into the back of one of the eldar. The alien bent awkwardly and flopped to the ground, limbs twitching.
Gessart had no time to spare a further glance for his warriors coming in behind him as more eldar appeared at the doorway ahead, pistols and swords gripped by slender fingers.
Gessart turned his right shoulder towards them and charged with a roar. Most of the eldar scattered quickly from his path but one was caught with nowhere to go; he was smashed bloodily into the wall by the headlong rush. A warning siren sounded in Gessart’s ears as blades bit deep into his backpack and legs, the eldar like a swarm of wasps, darting in to strike before swiftly retreating out of reach.
The Space Marine swung a booted foot at the closest, looking to sweep away the pirate’s legs. The eldar nimbly somersaulted over Gessart’s attack and landed with sure-footed grace to fire his pistol directly into Gessart’s face.
Gessart’s finger tightened instinctively on the trigger as he reeled back. Through the cracked lenses of his helm he saw the alien bisected by bolts, sheared through by detonations across his scale-armoured stomach.
Detecting the patter of feet behind him, Gessart swung around to confront a new attacker, but found only empty air. The eldar were falling back, disappearing quickly along both passageways. Willusch and Lehenhart set off after them but Gessart called them back.
“They’ll pick each of us off if we split up,” he said. “Let’s not run into an ambush.”
He quickly took stock of the scene. Two of his warriors lay still on the steps, their armour and flesh cut through to the bone in dozens of places. Another three were bleeding heavily from wounds to their arms and legs.
“Report in!” he barked over the comm.
The replies painted a complicated picture. Some of his Space Marines had fended off an eldar advance along the portside, causing significant casualties for no losses. Another group had been caught out on their way to support Gessart and two of their number had fallen in moments before the eldar had swiftly withdrawn. Those who had been stationed by the aft holds were still making their way towards the bow and had yet to encounter any foes.
Unfortunately the Lady Bountiful had no internal scanners to keep track of the pirates. Gessart looked for Heynke, who had the force’s only functional auspex. The Space Marine was at the top of the flight of steps, bolter in his hands, guarding the approach from above. His armour appeared undamaged, in stark contrast to the others, who all showed signs of the brief but fierce fight.
“Heynke, use the auspex,” Gessart said, checking the ammunition counter on his storm bolter. Seventeen rounds left. He had two more magazines at his belt. More than enough for the moment.
Heynke hooked his bolter to his belt and unslung the scanning device. His armoured fingers coaxed the machine into life, his helm reflecting the pale yellow of the display. Heynke moved the auspex around, trying to get a fix on the lifesigns of the eldar.
“Most have reached the upper decks,” he reported. “Too much interference from the superstructure for an accura… Hold on, someth
ing strange.”
“What is it?” demanded Gessart leaping up the steps to stand beside Heynke.
“Look for yourself,” the Space Marine said, holding the auspex towards Gessart.
The semi-circular screen was filled with bright lines—the power conduits running through the walls of the ship. The eldar showed as fainter traces, little more than pale yellow smudges. The largest concentration was two decks above in the crew mess hall. They were not moving.
“What do you think they are up to?” asked Heynke.
Gessart did not know and any speculation he might offer was abruptly stopped by a buzzing over the comm. The static lasted for a few moments, scaling higher in pitch, and then stopped. There was a pause before he heard a voice, the words slightly stilted with a mechanical edge to them.
“Commander of the Space Marines,” it said. “I have found the air upon which you speak. Heed the wisdom of my words. This loss of life is senseless and is not of benefit to myself or to you. I have become aware that we should not be adversaries. I detect the eyes that see far and know that you are aware of where I am. I have knowledge that you would wish I share with you. Meet me where we can hold conference and we will discuss this matter like civilised creatures.”
The link crackled again and fell silent.
“Was that…?” said Lehenhart. “Did that bastard override our comm-frequency?”
“How?” said Heynke.
“Forget how, did you hear what he said?” This was from Freichz. “He wants a truce!”
Gessart’s comm chimed again, signalling a switch to the private channel. He bit back a snarl of frustration at this fresh interruption.
“Yes?” he snapped.
“Gessart, we have a serious problem,” replied Zacherys. “Ships have broken through the warp boundary. I believe it is the Imperial Navy escort for the convoy.”
“Did you hear the pirate commander?”
“I did. I believe this is the information he wished to pass to us. Somehow he knows that we are protecting the fleet for ourselves. I would recommend that you hear what he has to say.”
Victories of the Space Marines Page 6
